Refrigerating apparatus



H. C. GARDNER AND F. A. LINDBERG. REFRIGERATING APPARATUS.

I APPLICAT ON FILED AUG.4|1919. 1,3?8fi3L A Patented Mar. 29, 1921.

2 SHEETS-SHEEI l- APPLICAT ON FILED AUG.4, 1919. 1,8?8,281 Patented. Mar. 29,1921.

H. C. GARDNER AND F. A. LINDBERG. REFRIGERATING APPARATUS.

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To all whom it may comer-W Be it known that we, HORACE C. GARDNER- and FRITZ A. LINDBERG, citizens of the.

United States, residing, respectively, at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, and Evanston, in the county of Cookand- State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Refrigerating Apparatus, of which the fol lowing is a full, clear, concise, and exact devices aside from the .brine spray nozzles for establishing and maintaining a draft of .cold air past and around the dressed meat or other products undergoing refrigeration,

While the nature of our invention requires that its structural embodiments shall vary within rather wide limits in order to meet various refrigeration problems'and in order. to successfully install our refrigerating equipment in structures not originally designed to have the equipment installed therein, the refrigerating equipment moreor less diagrammatically illustrated in the accompanyin drawings, may be considered typical of t e several forms taken by our invention in actual practice.

Since a description of our invention will be best understood when read in connection with drawings illustrating the same, we shall proceed at once to a description .ofthe accompanyingv drawings, in which,

Figure 1 is a view "partly in section and partly in elevation illustrating a refrigerat ing1 apparatus embodying our invention, an

Fig. 2 is aborizontal sectional view taken v on the line 2-.2'of Fig. 1.

Similar characters of reference refer to similar parts in both figures. The refrigerator shown more or less diagrammatically comprises side walls 10'-10 and 10 -40, the top or roof 11 and bottom or floor- 12, all preferably lined with'heat in sulation such as cork, or a composition of cork and asphalt indicated at 13, the said lining, where necessary, being protected with galvanized iron sheeting or other pronnrmenaa'rme arraaerus.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patigntgd Map, 29 1921,

Application filed August 4, 1919. Serial No. 315,139.

tecting covering illustrated at 13*. The refrigerator is also provided with as many doors 1515 as may be necessary or desirable. The ceiling indicated at 16 is preferably of material capable of resisting the corrosive action of thebrine, which as will presently be described, is the agent we prefer to employ for cooling and circulating the air in the refrigerator. The brine proofing material preferably covers the refrigerator side walls for a substantial distance below the ceiling as shown at 17-17, the same becurved deflector 18 which extends entirely across one side of the refrigerator. Our invention is not particularly concerned with any of these parts of the refrigerator, the details of which may, of course, be varied within very wide limits.

At 19 is illustrated a brine pan of brine proofing material which divides the refrige erator into two principal compartments, to

wit, the spray loft 19 and chilling chamber 20. The chilling chamber is provided with any suitable means for supporting the dressed meat or other products under refrigeration, as, for instance, the track 21 carried by track supporting timbers 22.

It will be noted that the brine pan extends entirely across the refrigerator between the walls lOP-lO of the latter, but terminates short of the walls 10-10 to afford communication between the chilling chamber and the ends of the spray loft. The brine pan is supported in any suitable manner as, for instance, by a frame-work comprising the joists 23--23, the under side of the brine pan preferably being provided with a suitable heat insulating lining 24 of cork or cork and asphalt to prevent condensation of moisture on the under side of the brine pan and the under side of the floor 25, upon which the brine pan and heat insulationQA are disposed. The escapeof brine from the brine pan by any avenue except the drain pipe, hereafter mentioned, is prevented by the refrigerator side walls 10-10 and by suitable heatifiisulated ledges 25' and 26, which prevent the'escape of brine over those edges of the brine pan which terminate short of the refrigerator walls 10-10. It will' be noted that the brine pan as viewed in Fig. 1 slopes from right to left and is provided with a drain 27 communicating with piping 28 leading to a brlne mixing'and storage tank'29, located at any suitthrough the left it will be understood the- R11 is rendered very cold before it leaves able point, for convenience here illustrated as positioned under the refrigerator floor 12. A suitably supported trough 30 is preferably disposed under the lower edge of'the curved deflector 18, this trough being provided with means in the form of a drain 31 for carrying the moisture which drips off the deflector 18 to the brine pan. If desired, a deflector 32 may extend downwardly from the lower edge of the brine pan to cause the current of chilled air, created as will presently be described, to pass downwardly a substantial distance before it circulates across the chilling chamber. We contemplate the use of deflectors of this kind wherever they will improve the operation of the system as a whole.

A pump 33, the intake-port of which communicates with the mixing and storage tank 29, discharges brine under pressure through pipe 34, past check-valve35 to a cooler of any suitable construction, which has been illustrated at 36. From the cooler the brine is led through pipe-line 37 to the nozzle carrying pipes 38, 39 and 40, which are dis-. posed parallel to. each other above the brine pan and have their closed ends supported in any suitable manner as, for instance, by brackets 41-41.

Each of the pipes 38, 39 and 40 is provided with a plurality of spray nozzles 42-42, all of which discharge in the same direction across the spray loft toward the low edge of the brine pan. The several nozzles may be of any well known construction but we prefer to employ nozzles of the type capable-0f discharging a liquid under pres sure in the form of a whirling spray. Such nozzles are well known and the details thereof need not be described here. As is clearly shown in Fig. 2, the several nozzles are so disposed that, whenthey are all discharglng spray in the same direction, the said spray substantially fills the loft in the vicinity of the pipes 38, 39 and 40 and for a substantial distance to the left of pipe 40 (Fig. 1) with the result that a rapid circulation of air is set up in the direction indicated by the arrows in Fig. 1. The violence of this circulation is, of course, de-

pendent upon the dimensions of the brine loft, the size and number of the nozzlesand the pressure under which the cold brine is supplied to the nozzles. Since the cold rlne spray comes into intimate contact with the air whichis caused to circulate the loft and circulates through the chilling compartment 20.

While we do not limit ourselves to any speclfic arrangement of theyspray nozzles, we have found that the system is very effective when the nozzles discharge inparallel rows and in tandem as herein illustrated,

sprayloft on opposite sides 0 A very effective arrangement is to provide the pipe 38 with a large number of equally spaced spray nozzles and to provide each of the pipes 39 and'40 with half as many nozzles, with the nozzles carried by the pipes 39 and 40 in staggered relation to each other. While this arrangement is very effective, it is but one of a number of arrangements that may be used to accomplish the same result. We do not limit ourselvesto the specific construction and arrangement of parts herein shown and described, but desire to claim all equivalent embodiments of our invention as defined by the appended claims.

Having thus described our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is 1. In a refrigerating apparatus .a chilling compartment, a spray loft thereabove, said chilling compartment communicating with said spray loft on the opposite sides of the latter and means for causing air to circulate through said spray loft and said chilling compartment comprising a plurality of nozzles in said spray loft all adapted to discharge a cold fluid under pressure into said spray loft in the same direction.

2. A refrigerating apparatus comprising a chillin compartment and a spray loft, said chilllng compartment opening into the spray loft on two sides of the latter, to gethe1iwith means in said spray loft for circulating and cooling air, said means comprising a plurality of spray nozzles discharging into said Ispray loft in parallel rows and in tandem to impel the circulation of air through said spray loft and said chilling compartment, together with means for supplying said spray nozzles with cold fluid under pressure.

3. A refrigerating apparatus comprising a chilling chamber and a spray loft, the chilling chamber communicatin with the the latter and a plurality of spray nozzles arranged in parallel rows and in tandem, all of said spray nozzles discharging into the spray loft in one direction substantially to fill the spray loft with spray in the vicinity of the nozzles to impel the circulation of air through the loft and said chilling chamber and means for supplying said nozzles with cold liquid under pressure,

4. A refrigerating apparatus comprising a chilling chamber, a spray chamber adjacent thereto, said spray chamber communicating at its ends with the chilling chamber and means arranged to discharge cold liquid spray under pressure end-wise into .said spray chamberto impel a circulation of air through said spray chaniber and chilling cent thereto said spray chamber communicating at its ends with the chilling cham-.

her, a plurality of spray nozzles in said spray chamber, said nozzles arranged in a plurality of parallel rows and means for Supplying said nozzles with cold liquid under pressure, all of said nozzles adapted to discharge a finely divided spray directed end-Wise into said spray chamber substantially to fill the spray chamber with cold pel the circulation of air through thespray chamber and to chill the air as it passes through said spray chamber.

In witness whereof, We hereunto sub- 15 scribe our names this 29th day of July, 1919.

HORACE C. GARDNER. FRITZ A. LINDBERG. Witness: r AIG. MOCALEB. 

